Wednesday, September 14, 2011

40 Days of Night(mares) Day 23: A Great Quote from a Horror Movie

You could almost insert anything Bruce Campbell has ever uttered on camera in here and make a damn good argument for it, but the king is needed elsewhere, so I thought long and hard, and a great soliloquy from a great film came up. Christian Bale is a master class in acting in just about any role he's in. His dedication to his craft is evident in every performance. Whether it's the stomach churning gauntness and gravitas of his role in The Machinist (a hard to watch but brilliant film by the way) or his scenery chewing performance in the campy Reign of Fire (dragons in London for chrisakes), he brings his A game every damn time.
American Psycho is no exception. Without giving away major spoilers, you are witnessing the unraveling of a tortured, and eventually unhinged man. Every time I hear "Hip to be Square" now, I get chills and think of this movie. But the line I love from AP comes late in the film, based on a novel by Bret Easton Ellis. It sums up the character perfectly and its delivery is perfect.

“There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp, and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape. But even after admitting this, there is no catharsis; my punishment continues to elude me, and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing.”


Bonus Video: Do you like Huey Lewis?


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